Objective A limited number of studies have explored the external load experienced in indoor sports such as ice hockey, and few the link between training and match performance. As a paucity exists within this topic, this study explored whether a simulated match design (i.e., scrimmage) could be representative of official match demands and elicit similar external loads as in official matches in a group of elite youth male ice hockey players. Methods A total of 26 players were monitored during eight official and four simulation matches using a Local Positioning System. Total distance, max velocity, slow (0–10.9 km/h), moderate (11–16.9 km/h), high (17.0–23.9 km/h), and sprint (>24 km/h) speed skating distance, distance per min, PlayerLoadTM, PlayerLoadTM per min, high-intensity events (HIEs) (>2.5 m/s−2), acceleration (ACCs), decelerations (DECs), and change of directions (CODs) were extracted from the tracking devices. A two-level regression analysis was conducted to compare the difference between match types when controlling for time on ice, match day, and position. Results Between match-type results showed a credible difference in all variables except max velocity and ACCs. Distance per min was 27.3% higher during simulation matches and was explained by a 21.3, 24.1, and 14.8% higher distance in sprint-, high-, and moderate speed skating distance, while slow speed-skating distance was 49.2% lower and total distance only trivially different from official to simulation matches. Total PlayerLoadTM was 11.2% lower, while PlayerLoadTM per min was 8.5% higher during simulation matches. HIEs, CODs, and DECs were 10.0, 11.9, and 22.3% higher during simulation matches. Conclusion The simulated match design is related to official match demands with comparable match-time, playing time, number of shifts, and shift duration. However, simulation matches provoked a higher external load output compared with official matches, possibly explained by a more continuous movement design. A game-based simulation match design can therefore be utilized when match-related actions at high intensity are warranted.


Despite substantial progress in dialysis patients' management, cardiovascular disease remains the major cause of death. Nearly half of deaths on dialysis are secondary to myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, malignant arrhythmias and other cardiac causes. The high prevalence of diabetes, anemia, hyperparathyroidism and hypertension among chronic dialysis patients fosters structural heart diseases. Moreover, fluid overload and metabolic abnormalities such as metabolic acidosis, dyskalemia and dysmagnesemia lead to an increased risk of clinically significant arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is often characterized by the presence of sympathetic hyperactivity and activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Control of sympathetic outflow, blockade of the RAAS and prevention of electrolyte disorders should be the mainstay of cardiovascular prevention in ESRD patients. This review summarizes the current available literature regarding the epidemiology of arrhythmias in dialysis patients, the underlying mechanism of atrial fibrillation or sudden death and potential interventions to reduce the risk of arrhythmias in dialysis patients, including medical therapy or defibrillators.


Penetration testing is the act of attempting to break into systems, networks, and software in order to determine where the bad guys might get in. By reading this book, you'll gain the foundations of a simple methodology used to perform penetration testing on systems and networks for which you are responsible. Penetration Testing Basics explains: How to identify security vulnerabilitiesHow to use some of the top security tools in order to identify holesHow to read reports from testing toolsCommon vulnerability types and attacksCommon web-based attacks and exposures as well as recommendations for closing those holes


Abstract Education was, is and will continue to be a field full of questions: Why to teach? What to teach? How to teach? What, how and when to evaluate? Moreover, while the same questions persist, answers to them do not. They are dynamic, and they are transformed according to the demands of the family, the company and government policies. To address these considerations, this article aims to present the results of research into the literature of the last two decades on the elements that characterize a pedagogical model and that have been taken into account in explorations with regard to the educational integration of information and communication technologies and to identify gaps for future research. The results show that only 11% of the literature reviewed addresses the four questions listed above and concludes on the need to deepen the factors that affect the success of the changes that are introduced in the school, which seek to generate processes of educational transformation, from a holistic perspective.


This article examines the spillover and crossover patterns between an individual's daily work experiences and health-promoting behaviors and daily marital interaction in 49 dual-earner couples. Husbands and wives separately completed daily diaries that included questions about work experiences, health-promoting behaviors, and marital interactions over 42 consecutive days. Pooled time series regression analyses were performed to examine transmission patterns between daily individual experiences and marital interaction. Spillover patterns were demonstrated from both individual experiences to marital interaction the same day and from marital interaction to individual experiences the next day. In general, spouses reported more positive marital interaction on days when they worked less, felt more energetic, ate more, and relaxed more. Spouses also reported working, eating, and relaxing more on days after husbands' negative marital interaction was reported. Patterns of spillover also differed for husbands and wives, suggesting that wives may be more reactive to their husbands' experiences and behaviors than vice versa.


Due to the environmental, energy saving and economic requirements, development of very high efficient compressors is of great importance. Consequently, flapper valve material becomes a critical issue and a limiting factor for the development of compressor. This paper provides a discussion on the material selection of the flapper valve for the compressors with very high efficiency, based mainly on a basic research on the mechanisms of impact fatigue and a finite element method (FEM) simulation on the formation of stress concentration in the flapper valve during the impact process. Impact fatigue initiation is caused by the initial impact stress, but the fatigue crack propagation is caused by a wavy stress propagation. This causes the formation of secondary cracks at the stress concentration points where two stress waves have the same phase. The results indicate that the flapper valve materials for the very high efficient compressors should have both high impact fatigue strength for the initial stress, and high stress damping capacity to reduce the crack propagation rate. Most recent developed flapper valve steel, Sandvik Hiflex™, shows both higher impact fatigue strength and higher damping capacity comparing with other commercial flapper valve steels available. This flapper valve steel material has successfully been used in the newly developed high efficient compressors. Some case stories have been discussed.


The abundance of ammonia-oxidising bacterial (AOB) and ammonia-oxidising archaeal (AOA) (amoA) genes and ammonia oxidation rates were compared bimonthly from July 2008 to May 2011 in 4 contrasting coastal sediments in the western English Channel. Despite a higher abundance of AOA amoA genes within all sediments and at all time-points, rates of ammo- nia oxidation correlated with AOB and not AOA amoA gene abundance. Sediment type was a major factor in determining both AOB amoA gene abundance and AOB community structure, pos- sibly due to deeper oxygen penetration into the sandier sediments, increasing the area available for ammonia oxidation. Decreases in AOB amoA gene abundance were evident during summer and autumn, with maximum abundance and ammonia oxidation rates occurring in winter and early spring. PCR-DGGE of AOB amoA genes indicated that no seasonal changes to community composition occurred; however, a gradual movement in community composition occurred at 3 of the sites studied. The lack of correlation between AOA amoA gene abundance and ammonium oxidation rates, or any other environmental variable measured, may be related to the higher spa- tial variation amongst measurements, obscuring temporal trends, or the bimonthly sampling, which may have been too infrequent to capture temporal variability in the deposition of fresh organic matter. Alternatively, AOA may respond to changing substrate concentrations by an increase or decrease in transcript rather than gene abundance.


Researchers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory tested the performance of electric motors and actuator gearboxes typical of the equipment installed on motor-operated valves used in nuclear power plants. Using a test stand that simulates valve closure loads against flow and pressure, the authors tested five electric motors (four ac and one dc) and three gearboxes at conditions a motor might experience in a power plant, including such off-normal conditions as operation at high temperature and reduced voltage. They also monitored the efficiency of the actuator gearbox. All five motors operated at or above their rated starting torque during tests at normal voltages and temperatures. For all five motors, actual torque losses due to voltage degradation were greater than the losses calculated by methods typically used for predicting motor torque at degraded voltage conditions. For the dc motor the actual torque losses due to elevated operating temperatures were greater than the losses calculated by the typical predictive method. The actual efficiencies of the actuator gearboxes were generally lower than the running efficiencies published by the manufacturer and were generally nearer the published pull-out efficiencies. Operation of the gearbox at elevated temperature did not affect the operating efficiency.


To the Editor: "Is the blind tuner disappearing?" was the heading of a recent article appearing in several periodicals. The answer is, of course, an unqualified yes, due to the pernicious influence of mainstreaming as practiced in the school systems across our globe. The well-trained blind tuner, offering a complete range of service skills for over 150 years, was a fixture at piano factories, dealers, college employment and especially in private practice. Many thousands found excellent tuning opportunities, bought homes, raised families and, in all, were productive members of general society. The elimination of special training at secondary-school level for the past twenty years in the traditional state schools for the blind has depleted the community of newcomers. Of the three advanced training centers for blind tuners-Taladega, Alabama; Dennison, Texas; and Vancouver, Washington-only the latter still has students. Emil Fries, founder of the Piano Hospital and Training Center, states, "We are facing imminent disaster unless there is strong reversal of specialized education for the blind." Alfred Heckman, London, England, a founding memberof the English blind tuners group, indicates, "We're having fewer newcomers and these are inadequately trained due to mainstreaming." According to Giles Fournier, Quebec, secretary of a forty-member group of wellqualified blind tuners, "We are having virtually no new applicants since the provincial special school closed." Kai Okada, blind machinist, Chicago, producing the few special devices very useful to advanced blind piano rebuilders, says, "I'm closing shop, only one order in six months." To confront this gloomy picture, a conference was held in fall of 1987 among key blind practitioners in the field to preserve and enhance a historically excellent craft. Shortand long-range projects have been formulated; among present goals are actions to preserve advanced training facilities. Contacts are under way with professional groups dealing in special education, counseling, rehabilitation and placement, Lions International, etc. The Visually Impaired Piano Tuners International has started with high enthusiasm and will be holding its next meeting Sunday, July 3rd, Excelsior Hotel, Little Rock, Arkansas, as a special interest group affiliated with the American Council of the Blind. For further information, contact: Chairman Stanley Oliver, 1965 East Outer Drive, Detroit, MI 48234; (313) 891-9226. Treasurer is Ken Seviss, 2510 E. Evergreen Blvd., Vancouver, WA 98661. Ken is manager of the Piano Hospital and Training Center. A quarterly newsletter is being issued; dues are $20.00 annually. Stanley Oliver 1965 East Outer Drive Detroit, MI 48234


One of the oldest techniques used to protect the testator or settlor's intent for the distribution of his estate, including the transfer of property via trusts, is the use of the in terrorem clause, a provision that seeks to scare the beneficiary into acceptance of the instrument's terms by threatening to void the beneficiary's gift if his challenge to the instrument is unsuccessful. Many jurisdictions, including Texas, recognize the validity of such clauses. However, Texas case law is conflicting with earlier courts providing for strict enforcement and later courts discounting forfeiture if the beneficiary brought the case with probable cause and in good faith. This inconsistency and lack of statutory authority present the problem of unpredictability of utilizing in terrorem clauses. This article first observes the clause's history. It then examines the four approaches currently followed to evaluate the provisions by United States courts and legislatures. The focus shifts to Texas's use and judicial treatment of the clause, its validity in the state, and the uncertainty resulting from conflicting reported decisions. Finally, the authors address the need for a comprehensive in terrorem statute in Texas and conclude with a proposed statute designed to remedy the current inadequacies of the case law.


Abstract : An acoustic surface wave device is configured as a bandstop filter. The device has groups of sinusoidal corrugations cut into the top surface of a piezoelectric substrate between the input and output sets of interdigital transducers. The groups of corrugations selectively scatter certain surface acoustic wave spectral components traveling between the input and output transducers. The scattered components are converted to bulk vibration and do not impinge upon the output transducer; other components travel from input to output transducer relatively undiminished. Thus, a band of scattered surface acoustic spectral components is filtered from the input spectrum.


Abstract A case of toxic shock syndrome associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus parotitis in a 13-year-old male is presented. He was initially diagnosed with left-sided parotitis by his primary care physician, was started on sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, and became severely ill the following day. He was transported to the hospital after a syncopal episode at home and was found to have altered mental status, hypotension, and hypoxia. He was transferred to a larger care facility and died en route despite aggressive resuscitation. At autopsy, he was found to have a severe left-sided parotitis, severe pulmonary congestion, edema, and pneumonia, as well as bilateral lower limb hemorrhagic lesions. Blood cultures from the time of admission and at autopsy grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which is rarely reported as the sole cause of parotitis. In addition, although S. aureus bacteremia is not necessarily a rare complication of a parotid gland infection, it is exceedingly rare in an immunocompetent adolescent.


The authors propose three simple market-timing strategies and compare them to other commonly known strategies, such as the yield curve, earnings yield vs. Treasury yield, Shiller CAPE, and S&P 500 200-day simple moving average. The first strategy uses the leading economic indicator (LEI) from the Conference Board. The other two use sentiment indexes from the Baker-Wurger index and the Feldman perceived loss index to trigger the switch between the S&P 500 and three-month Treasury bills. The Conference Board's LEI strategy earns the highest return of the three strategies, beating the benchmark strategy, which consists of simply holding the S&P 500, by 1.66% per year from 1970 to 2012. Corresponding monthly returns are significantly different from those of the benchmark strategy at the 10% level. The authors also combine strategies and find that a mix of both fundamental and technical strategies produces even greater returns than does any single market timing strategy. The combination of the Conference Board LEI and S&P 500 200-day moving average beats the benchmark strategy by 2.76% annually. Lastly, they find that the Shiller CAPE underperforms all of the market-timing strategies in question, as well as the S&P 500 benchmark strategy.


The growth performance of 18 Holstein and 20 Jersey heifer calves fed calf starter meals containing either cottonseed oil-cake meal (CSOCM) or soybean oil-cake meal (SBOCM) was compared. The diets were iso-nutritious in terms of crude protein and energy, and were fed from two weeks of age until two or three months of age to Holstein or Jersey calves respectively. Jersey and Holstein calves weighed 21.4±0.5 and 35.9±1.4 kg respectively at the start of the experiment. There were no differences between calf starter meals containing CSOCM or SBOCM (p > 0.05) in respect of feed intake, growth rate or efficiency of feed conversion. Average daily gain of Jersey and Holstein heifer calves was 0.435±0.02 and 0.635±0.03 kg/day respectively. No calves died during the experiment. It was concluded that the most important criterion for inclusion of CSOCM in calf starter meals is the cost of CSOCM relative to that of SBOCM, provided that the CSOCM used has a gossypol content of less than 200 ppm.
(South African Journal of Animal Science: 2000, 30(1): 67-69)


Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), is the most widely grown perennial forage crop, which is a close relative of the model diploid legume Medicago truncatula. However, use of alfalfa lead to substantial greenhouse gas emissions and economic losses related to inefficiencies in rumen fermentation. The provision of supplemental lipids has been used as a strategy to mitigate these issues, but it is a costly approach. The ability to enhance lipid content within the vegetative tissues of alfalfa would therefore be very advantageous. As such, our aim was to assess and select gene candidates to increase total shoot lipid content in M. truncatula using a virus‐induced gene silencing (VIGS) approach. We targeted gene homologs of the SUGAR‐DEPENDANT 1 (SDP1), ADP‐GLUCOSE‐PYROPHOSPHORYLASE SMALL SUBUNIT 1 (APS1), TRIGALACTOSYLDIACYLGLYCEROL 5 (TGD5) and PEROXISOMAL ABC TRANSPORTER 1 (PXA1) in M. truncatula for silencing. Reduced target transcript levels were confirmed and changes of shoot lipid content and fatty acid composition were measured. Silencing of SDP1, APS1 and PXA1 each resulted in significant increases in shoot total lipid content. Significantly increased proportions of α‐linolenic acid (18:3Δ9cis,12cis,15cis) were observed and stearic acid (18:0) levels significantly decreased in the total acyl lipids extracted from vegetative tissues of each of the M. truncatula silenced plants. In contrast, palmitic acid (16:0) levels were significantly decreased in only SDP1 and PXA1‐silenced plants. Genes of PXA1 and SDP1 would be ideal targets for mutation as a means of improving the quality of alfalfa for increasing feed efficiency and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production in the future.


Scientists and governments worldwide have, for decades, made mammoth efforts to "bank" agricultural biodiversity as an insurance policy against natural and manmade threats to the global food supply. Meanwhile, in recent years a perfect storm has been brewing: small-scale and midscale farmers are hungry for new market opportunities; consumers in more developed countries crave foods that come with a history and from a known place; and the concepts of biodiversity and terroir as applied to food are creeping into mainstream consciousness.

Using Greece as a lens for examining these issues and using seeds as a lens for understanding Greece, this article explores the country's myriad food-plant variety preservation initiatives, from community seed saving to government gene banking, and it asks: Could banked seeds be distributed to farmers who could cultivate them, regenerating the seed collections themselves, reintroducing consumers to old varieties and creating new market opportunities for struggling small and midsize farmers? Could seed bankers, plant breeders, consumers, seed-saving farmers, and innovative food businesses collaborate in a mutually beneficial way to preserve and promote heirloom seed varieties? What would it take to bring more heirloom seeds from the freezer to the field?


Two years ago we left the insulated environment of the university setting to return to the chaos and excitement of full time teaching in two first-grade classrooms. Our colleagues wondered why we felt this need, and the teachers in the schools where we were going were pleased, but skeptical, about our abilities to cope with the tumult of classroom teaching again. We often asked ourselves why were we embarking upon this bold, new adventure. After some contemplation of the question, we decided there were at least four good reasons for returning. First, we believed that we, like many professors, would benefit from occasionally re-immersing ourselves in the reality of classroom teaching. Second, we realized that our credibility with our preservice and inservice teachers would increase dramatically as a result of our return. (Our students often challenged us to prove our ideas in classrooms!) Third, we were anxious to learn about how children go about solving the reading and writing puzzle. And fourth, we were particularly interested in implementing holistic reading and writing strategies and routines in our classrooms.


: In the attic of his home the author found papers concerning the case history of a woman who in the first days after the liberation, in April-May 1945, suffered from a severe form of puerperal sepsis. The woman recovered completely after treatment with a totally new drug: penicillin, obtained from the medical supplies of the allied British forces. She probably was the first patient treated with this antibiotic in the Netherlands.


To the Editor : I should like to congratulate theJournaland Dr. Walter R. Stahl for presenting the article "Similarity Studies in the Developing Human." (Amer J Dis Child105:123, 1963). My reasons are twofold: first, that it provided an interesting and provocative discussion in an area which should appeal particularly to pediatricians, and second, that it included only a single instance of the use of the word "parameter," a word which I have come to associate with a sort of "one-upmanship" of scientific writing. When I was a student at M.I.T. we spoke of factors, variables, unknowns, observations, etc. These terms no longer seem to be good coin of the realm and it appears that, just as a staff member's chances of promotion are gauged by the weight of the articles he has published, so is the authoritativeness of the articles gauged by the number of times he includes


This paper is a review of our experience with primary carcinoma of the gallbladder at the Akron City Hospital. The records of all patients with cancer of the gallbladder in the years 1958 to 1968 were studied. Forty-one cases were found among 4,000 cholecystectomies, an incidence of 1% carcinoma of the gallbladder (Fig 1). This incidence is in close agreement with the collective review made by Arminski. 1 He found 569 carcinomas of the gallbladder in 46,480 operations on the biliary tract, an incidence of 1.12%. Numerous reports from the various clinics have revealed little change in the overall picture of carcinoma of the gallbladder. The five-year survival rate for patients with the disease has been uniformly poor, varying from 1% to 6%. 1-3 In this country, it is the fifth most frequent type of carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract and causes approximately 6,500 deaths annually. 4 Etiology Cholelithiasis, cholecystitis,


Abstract This article explores how racism is located in an educational policy chain and identifies how its interpretation changes throughout the chain. A basic assumption is that the policy formation process can be seen as a chain in which international, national and local policies are 'links' – separate entities yet joined. With Sweden as the national example, the article analyses how racism in education is framed at different policy levels and which anti-racist actions are proposed. The article thereby clarifies who or what is, at different policy levels, perceived to be the location of racism. A first finding concerns terminology: throughout the policy chain the problem of racism is discussed in terms of 'discrimination'. At European, national and local level, discrimination is mostly associated with 'ethnicity', thereby removing from policy a possibly stronger language for combating racism. A second finding is that the location of racism in education moves gradually through the chain from an institutional to an individual location of racism, with an increasing focus on the significance of the student rather than the importance of societal structures. The importance of circumstances for policy formation is a third main finding in the article.


Lewy body diseases include dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease. Whereas dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease can be distinguished as separate clinical entities, the pathological picture is very often identical. a -synuclein aggregation is a key event in the pathogenesis of Lewy body diseases and b -synuclein inhibits a -synuclein aggregation in vitro and in vivo. Recently, b -synuclein has been shown to interact directly with a -synuclein, regulating its functionality and pre-venting its oligomerization. In this study, we analysed the expression of two b -synuclein transcript variants and the main a -synuclein transcript SNCA140, in frozen samples of three areas from brains of patients with (i) pure diffuse Lewy body pathology; (ii) pure Alzheimer's disease pathology; (iii) diffuse Lewy body pathology and concomitant Alzheimer's disease pathology and (iv) controls. Relative messenger RNA expression was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction, expression changes were evaluated by the (cid:2)(cid:2) C t method and messenger RNA expression data were confirmed at the protein level. A drastic diminution of b -synuclein expression was observed in cortical areas of all samples that presented neuropathological features corresponding to pure diffuse Lewy body pathology and the clinical phenotype of dementia with Lewy bodies, but not in those with neuropathological features corresponding to diffuse Lewy body pathology and concomitant Alzheimer's disease pathology or the clinical phenotype of Parkinson's disease with dementia. The correlation of expression data with the clinical phenotype and neuropathological diagnosis of the patients suggested the existence of a specific molecular subtype of dementia with Lewy bodies, characterized by a strong decrease of b -synuclein in the frontal and temporal cortices. Furthermore, our findings provide new insights into the pathogenesis of Lewy body diseases that may be important for the understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in these complex diseases.


There is a large difference between IFRS-based Accounting Standards and taxation rules the Government of Indonesia. In 2011 Indonesian Institute of Accountants (IAI) decide to adopted IFRS-based as Indonesian Accounting Standards. Fixed assets ware one of the most affected accounts in financial report because of adapted IFRS rules in Indonesian Accounting Standard. Unfortunately, changes in accounting standards are not followed by a change in the tax rules. Fiscal reconciliation process must be undertaken because variety of the fixed assets and depreciation methods or valuation. Various in types and high number of fixed assets and tax payers lack capability of tax reporting, leads high complexity problem in fixed asset tax accounting. Therefore software that is able to accommodate the interests and demands of the standard tax is one means to facilitate required reporting. This study used an experimental method using two groups of samples which taxpayers and consultants. With the purpose of comparison tests performed a between-subject testing. By using an independent testing sample t-test results showed that there is not difference perceived usefulness (PU) by the taxpayer and consultants. Both groups of experimental units assume that the system is able to improve their performance. Therefore the first hypothesis is rejected in this research. The results of the second test indicates the second hypothesis is accepted, it means a significant difference of the level of ease of use (Perceived Ease of Use) perceived by the taxpayer and consultants. In general, these results show the potential tax accounting software users are more focused on the consultants.


The characteristic form taken by English Marxism since the war has been the study of history. No writer exemplifies its achievements better than Edward Thompson, whose "Making of the English Working Class" is probably the most influential single work of historical scholarship by a socialist today. An editor of "The New Reasoner" in 1957 59, a founder of the New Left in 1960, now an eloquent champion of civil rights, Thompson has most recently aroused widespread interest with the appearance of his "Poverty of Theory," which combines philosophical and political polemic with Louis Althusser, and powerful advocacy of the historian's craft. "Arguments Within English Marxism" is an assessment of its central theses that relates them to Thompson's major historical writings themselves. Thus the role of human agency the part of the conscious choice and active will in history is discussed through consideration of its treatment in "The Making of the English Working Class." The problems of base and superstructure in historical materialism, and of affiliation to values in the past, are reviewed in the light of "Whigs and Hunters." The claims of utopian imagination are illustrated from the findings of "William Morris." Questions of socialist strategy are broached in part through the articles now collected in "Writing by Candlelight. "Exploring at once differences and convergences between "New Left Review" and one of its founders, the essay concludes by suggesting the virtues of diversity within a common socialist culture."


The design of a versatile ac loss and stability characterization facility for high temperature superconducting materials suitable for variable temperature measurements is described. A non-metallic vessel inside a transverse field double-helix magnet acts as the measurement chamber. A cryocooler cools the samples to a target measurement temperature between 35 and 80 K. The facility is suitable for measurements on samples as long as 15 cm with ac transport current and ac background magnetic field, both at variable frequency. The facility allows for sample rotation to vary its orientation with respect to the magnetic field. Initial temperature measurements showed that the sample could be maintained at uniform temperature to plusmn0.5 K. AC loss measurements performed on a precursor setup, identical in concept, confirmed the suitability of the double-helix magnet design and cryocooler based cooling arrangement.


The production of enterotoxin A, B, C and D by 196 Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from blood cultures and 95 strains from nasal carriers was investigated. Half of the bacteraemia strains were from patients who died with or because of their infection, the other half from patients who survived. The nasal strains were selected to match the bacteraemia strains regarding phage types. Overall, 30.6% of the bacteraemia strains and 40.0% of the nasal strains produced enterotoxins; enterotoxins B and C were the toxins produced most frequently in both groups. A similar incidence and pattern of enterotoxin production was found among the bacteraemia strains of S. aureus regardless of acquisition of the infection, the portal of entry, presence or absence of endocarditis and outcome of the infection. Thus, the concept that the enterotoxins play an important role in staphylococcal infections, apart from the diseases caused by the toxins per se such as food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome, cannot be substantiated by the results of the present study.


This paper suggests an automated detection of alcoholics and controls using Electroencephalograms (EEG).
EEG signals are recorded from healthy and alcoholic subjects during visual object recognition task. Threshold
of 100 �V is used to remove the eye blink artifact and the gamma sub band (30–50 Hz) is extracted using
elliptic band pass filter of 6th order. Different classical (spectral entropy), model based (power spectral density
(PSD) estimation by Burg autoregressive (AR) model and eigenvector PSD estimation methods (MUSIC) in frequency domain are used as feature selection parameters. Three classification models such as feed forward Back propagation neural network (BPNN), Probabilistic neural network (PNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) networks are used to classify alcoholics and control subjects. The performances of BPNN and PNN classifiers are evaluated using 10-fold cross validation and holdout cross validation is performed to evaluate SVM classifier. Results show that model based and eigenvector based feature extraction methods are more
accurate and sensitive than the conventional method such as spectral entropy estimation method to discriminate
alcoholics from healthy controls. The SVM and PNN classifiers perform better than the BPNN classifier in terms
of classification accuracy and computational complexity. However to achieve high classification accuracy, SVM
does not require either the preprocessing of the input signal as in BPNN classifier or the tuning of the spread
factor as in PNN classifier. Hence among the three classifiers used in this work, SVM seems to be an optimal
classifier for classifying alcoholics and healthy subjects.


This case study explores whether the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be used as a shared framework for results by development co-operation actors in Samoa. The study offers an introduction to Samoa's progress in mainstreaming the SDGs in national policy making, as well as in monitoring the SDG targets and indicators. It then focuses on the experiences of development co-operation partners in aligning their country-level programmes and frameworks with the SDGs, and identifies enabling factors, drivers and obstacles that contribute to SDG alignment and monitoring in Samoa. The study concludes with recommendations for both the government and its development partners to increase the collective use of the SDG framework and improve policy coherence, effectiveness and sustainable impact of all development efforts.


Starting in 2013, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a series of networks, known as the Offshore Leaks Networks, detailing the information of entities and transactions of offshore accounts. Through cross-referencing with known blacklists of entities, illicit individuals and transactions were able to be identified in the networks provided. In machine learning research, the Offshore Leaks Networks draws off of large databases of data to classify many nodes in high dimensional space. The chief problem with node classification is that the illicit entities are not always known, and techniques have been devised to tackle this problem, such as centrality and structural-based learning. In this paper, SparseStruct—the algorithm developed by Serra et al. [1]— is shown to achieve the best results. This is because it uses a structural node representational learning technique able to identify specific structural patterns in the graph. This technique achieved AUROC scores of between 0.61 and 0.81, with three of the four scores being the top score of all classifiers compared.


The employment of classification in learning big relational data is an important research field. Learning big relational data often involves large feature dimensionality and this can be very time consuming. Many approaches have been developed to learn relational data. One of the approaches used to learn relational data is DARA. The DARA algorithm is designed to summarize data with one-to-many relations. However, DARA suffers a major drawback when the cardinalities of attributes are very high because the size of the vector space representation depends on the number of unique values that exist for all attributes in the dataset. A feature selection process can be introduced to overcome this problem. However, different feature selection methods used will produce different sets of selected features and thus produces different classification results. The final results obtained based on these sets of features selected can be further optimized by computing the consensus result in order to achieve a good classification result. This can be achieved by introducing an ensemble technique into the framework. Ensembles are frequently used to improve the predictive accuracies of multiple classifiers by producing the final consensus result from multiple classifiers. In this project, a two-layered genetic algorithm-based feature selection is proposed to form the basic ensemble in order to improve the classification performance in learning relational datasets. Results from the experiments show that the proposed method is able to improve the accuracies of classification tasks and k-NN classifiers with Euclidean distance as similarity measurements outperformed other classifiers.


A novel analog channel and source integrated (CSI) coding formulation is offered that inherently arises from a systematic generalization of a recently offered minimum mean squared error (MMSE) linear state space (LSS) predictive transform (PT) source coding formulation. The CSI coding formulation leads to both suboptimum and optimum coders. The suboptimum coder has a decoder that is relatively simple to design and implement but has a stability that is a function of the assumes signal source statistics. On the other hand, the optimum coder has a decoder that is more complex to design and implement but has the advantage of being stable regardless of the assumed signal source statistics and is, in addition, strictly optimum for the ease where the true describing equations for the channel and signal source are of the additive white noise and white LSS types, respectively.<<ETX>>


The US Bureau of Mines has investigated the early detection of insulation failure in squirrel cage induction motors for the past 4 years. Research was done using a sophisticated empirical data-modeling technique based on values calculated from a motor's voltage and current phasors. This technique produces two polynomial equations that calculate the insulation leakage current and power. These models were implemented in a prototype system that monitors six motors on a continuous miner for insulation leakage. These insulation leakage values are used to anticipate insulation failure. The system consists of a motor-data-system for each motor on the machine and a control computer located away from the miner. Each motor-data-system consists of an analog interface to the motor's voltages and currents, a single-board computer that reads digitized data and calculates voltage and current phasors, and a bus node that interfaces the single-board computer with the rest of the system by way of a serial bus system. Using this bus system, the control computer requests and receives phasor data from the motor-data-systems. From these data the control computer calculates and displays two deterioration values for each motor, for leakage current and power, using Bureau-developed models. These values are stored in a datamore » base from which the user can display graphs of each motor's deterioration values over time.« less


The surfactant-mediated desorption of adsorbed poly(vinylpyrrolidone), PVP, from anionic silica surfaces by sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS, was observed. While photon correlation spectroscopy shows that the size of the polymer-surfactant-particle ensemble grows with added SDS, a reduction in the near-surface polymer concentration is measured by solvent relaxation NMR. Volume fraction profiles of the polymer layer extracted from small-angle neutron scattering experiments illustrate that the adsorbed polymer layer has become more diffuse and the polymer chains more elongated as a result of the addition of SDS. The total adsorbed amount is shown to decrease due to Coulombic repulsion between the surfactant-polymer complexes and between the complexes and the anionic silica surface.


Purpose

The purpose of the study is to analyse the occurrence and distribution of different tree species in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, as a baseline for further inventories, and estimate the biomass per species and plot. Furthermore, it aims to measure forest biodiversity using established formulae for tree species diversity index, richness, evenness and accumulative curve.

Design/methodology/approach

Field data were collected, including stratification of forest sample plots. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out, and locally appropriate allometric equations were applied for biomass estimation.

Findings

Representative circular 556 forest sample plots of 1,000 m2 contained 13,135 trees belonging to nine tree species with a total aboveground biomass of 12,887 tonnes. Sixty-eight per cent of the trees were found between 2,600 and 3,400 masl; approximately 63 per cent had a diameter at breast height equal to 30 cm, and 45 per cent were less than 12 m in height. The Shannon diversity index was 1.82, and Simpson's index of diversity was 0.813.

Research limitations/implications

Rough terrain, long distances, harsh weather conditions and location of forest in steep narrow valleys presented challenges for the field crews, and meant that fieldwork took longer than planned.

Practical implications

Estimating biomass in Gilgit-Baltistan's forests using locally developed allometric equations will provide transparency in estimates of forest reference levels, National Forest Monitoring System in Pakistan and devising Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation national strategies and for effective implementation.

Originality/value

This paper presents the first detailed forest inventory carried out for the dry temperate and semi-arid cold region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.


Several authors propose that performative speech acts are self-guaranteeing due to their self-referential nature (Searle 1989, Jary 2007). The present paper offers an analysis of self-referentiality in terms of truth conditional semantics, making use of Davidsonian events. I propose that hereby can denote the ongoing act of information transfer (more mundanely, the utterance) which thereby enters the meaning of the sentence. The analysis will be extended to cover self-referential sentences without the adverb hereby. While self-referentiality can be integrated in ordinary truth conditional semantic analysis without being a mystery, the resulting account shows that self-referentiality in this sense is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for performative utterances. I propose that the second ingredient of performative utterances consists in an act of the speaker defining her utterance to be an act of the respective kind. The final theory can successfully predict the performativity, or lack thereof, of a wide range of performative sentences, and leads to an explicated interface between compositional sentence meaning and speech act.


The accuracy of rotordynamic analysis of aeroengine structures is typically limited by a trade-off between the capabilities and the computational cost of the squeeze-film damper (SFD) bearing model used. Identification techniques provide a means of efficiently implementing complex nonlinear bearing models in practical rotordynamic analysis; thus facilitating design optimisation of the SFD and the engine structure. This thesis considers both identification from advanced numerical models and identification from experimental tests. Identification from numerical models is essential at the design stage, where rapid simulation of the dynamic performance of a variety of designs is required. Experimental identification is useful to capture effects that are difficult to model (e.g. geometric imperfections). The main contributions of this thesis are:? The development of an identification technique using Chebyshev polynomial fits to identify the numerical solution of the incompressible Reynolds equation. The proposed method manipulates the Reynolds equation to allow efficient and accurate identification in the presence of cavitation, the feed-groove, feed-ports, end-plate seals and supply pressure.? The first-ever nonlinear dynamic analysis on a realistically sized twin-spool aeroengine model that fulfills the aim of taking into account the complexities of both structure and bearing model while allowing the analysis to be performed, in reasonable time frames, on a standard desktop computer.? The introduction and validation of a nonlinear SFD identification technique that uses neural networks trained from experimental data to reproduce the input-output function governing a real SFD.Numerical solution of the Reynolds equation, using a finite difference (FD) formulation with appropriate boundary conditions, is presented. This provides the base data for the identification of the SFD via Chebyshev interpolation. The identified ?FD-Chebyshev? model is initially validated against the base (FD) model by application to a simple rotor-bearing system. The superiority of vibration prediction using the FD-Chebyshev model over simplified analytical SFD models is demonstrated by comparison with published experimental results. An enhanced FD-Chebyshev scheme is then implemented within the whole-engine analysis of a realistically sized representative twin-spool aeroengine model provided by a leading manufacturer. Use of the novel Chebyshev polynomial technique is repeatedly demonstrated to reduce computation times by a factor of 10 or more when compared to the basis (FD) model, with virtually no effect on the accuracy. Focus is then shifted to an empirical identification technique. Details of the commissioning of an identification test rig and its associated data acquisition system are presented. Finally, the empirical neural networks identification process for the force function of an SFD is presented and thoroughly validated. When used within the rotordynamic analysis of the test rig, the trained neural networks is shown to be capable of predicting complex nonlinear phenomena with remarkable accuracy. The results show that the neural networks are able to capture the effects of features that are difficult to model or peculiar to a given SFD.


ABSTRACT: This study employs a simple nonlinear statistical approach to establish nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment concentration and unit area load thresholds to aid in the evaluation of aquatic biological health of watersheds within the state of Pennsylvania. Flow, nitrogen and phosphorus species, sediment, basin area, land cover, and biological assessment data were assembled for 29 Pennsylvania watersheds. For each watershed, rating curves depicting flow versus load relationships were developed using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) storage and retrieval database (STORET) flow and concentration data, then applied to daily flow data obtained from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) daily flow gauging stations to estimate daily load between 1989 and 1999. The load estimates and concentration data were then sorted into six sets of data: mean annual unit area nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads; and average nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment concentrations. Results of Mann‐Whitney tests conducted on each of the six datasets indicate that there is a statistically significant difference between the concentrations and unit area loads of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in impaired and unimpaired watersheds. Concentration thresholds, calculated as the midpoint between the impaired and unimpaired watersheds' 95 percent confidence interval for the median, were estimated to be 2.01 mg/L, 0.07 mg/L, and 197.27 mg/L for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment, respectively. Annual unit area load thresholds were estimated to be equal to 8.64 kg/ha, 0.30 kg/ha, and 785.29 kg/ha, respectively, for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment species.


Indonesia is a heaven for strong capital retailers. With a population of more than 235 million, Indonesia has become a very lucrative market (editor of Majalah Kompetisi, 2012). AC Nielsen 2008 data shows modern retail growth of 30 percent every year. The existence of modern retail on the one hand has a positive impact in the form of employment of up to 23.4 million people (BPS, 2016), number two after agriculture. On the other hand, it has a negative impact due to unhealthy competition, which is detrimental to retail stores. The existence of minimarkets can turn off 20-50 small shops, while one supermarket can turn off up to 200 stores. Establishment of minimarkets, at a radius of 500 meters will get decrease result in income of up to 57.92 percent. At a radius of 1 km 30 percent (Iffah et al, 2011).
The two partners also experienced a decline in turnover, a traditional grocery store "Bu Sirly" at Ngabul Jepara, which is experienced a turnover of up to 30 percent and a home-based minimarket "Nice Supermarket" at Sengonbugel Mayong whose gets turnover decreased by 60 percent, so that they had to lay off their employees. It is caused at almost the same time in 2013-2014 modern there are ALFAmart and Indomaret that emerged at a distance of less than 500 meters.
Partnership Program This service activity strives to overcome partner problems in such as the low competitiveness, and is exacerbated by the low quality of service because there is no adequate SOP and often trouble recording and accounting systems. Outcome of devotion is a solution to the problem. They are: 1) competitiveness improvement program, 2) Upgrading accounting information systems and equipment programs. The approach used is interactive Participation Method, in which the two partners play a role in the process of planning activities and internal strengthening of the organization so that the two partners can maintain their performance after this PKM activity is completed.
The method of implementing the competitiveness improvement program was carried out in stages: 1) SWOT analysis, 2) Equalization of program perceptions and agreements, 3) shop modernization, 4) service standard training, 5) governance training and SOP, 6) SOP shop construction, 7) Application and assistance. In the upgrading system of shops and equipment information systems, the stages are: 1) analysis of the needs and design of information system, 2) Identification and preparation of product item databases, 3) Making accounting software, 4) Application of accounting information systems, 5) training of accounting information system, 6 ) in traditional shop units, an ergonomic store layout will be arranged, 7) Application and assistance for system use. As an effort to guarantee the quality of the implementation of the work program, the implementation of each partner will be accompanied by two students from the Information Systems Study Program, Communication Sciences, Management and Accounting.


To what extent do moviemakers, television and radio producers, advertising executives, and marketers merely reflect trends, beliefs, and desires that already exist in our culture, and to what extent do they consciously shape our culture to their own ends? In-depth interviews with ten executives from the "culture industry" and five scholarly analyses examine that question, and address the issues of power and authority, meaning and identity, that arise when cultural producers define and react to audiences. In their own words, leaders from companies like Twentieth-Century Fox, National Public Radio, and Warner Bros. Television describe their perception of the sometimes paradoxical relationship between culture and what influences it. For example, while the former president of Coca-Cola North America claims the company has never tried to create a trend, he notes that "we market in more countries than belong to the United Nations [a product that] has insinuated itself into the lives of the people to a point where it has become-you know, it's there." These reflections by key players provide an unprecedented view, as editor Richard Ohmann writes, "into the ways cultural producers imagine or know markets and how such knowledge figures in their decisions about what events, experiences, and products to make."


Abstract We examined whether chronic exposure of traps to disinfectant reduced trappability of rodents as compared to new traps. We tested whether rodents initially chose between treated (disinfected) and new traps and if total number of captures differed between these treatments. Disinfectant did not reduce catchability of traps; rodents actually preferred treated traps. In initial pair-wise choice tests, rodents overall and the predominant North American deermouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, chose significantly more treated than new traps, although this difference disappeared as time of exposure of new traps in the environment increased. Total captures of small mammals and North American deermice did not differ between treated and new traps. Therefore, treated traps were never avoided; this has important implications in general, but especially for long-term studies where censuses are conducted using pre-disinfectant and post-disinfectant protocols.


Many physiologic and pharmacologic stimuli rapidly increase the expression in the central nervous system of immediate early genes such as c-fos. Immunohistochemical mapping of the protein product of c-fos gene expression (Fos) can be used to identify some of the individual neurons whose activities have been altered by such stimuli. This brief review describes the use of this strategy in identifying potential neuroanatomical targets of neuroleptic drugs. Among the most significant findings to date is the demonstration by several laboratories that the regional pattern of clozapine-induced c-fos expression differs significantly from that produced by typical neuroleptics such as haloperidol. Fos immunohistochemistry may be a rapid and reliable method for identifying new antipsychotic drugs that have a broader spectrum of therapeutic activity and reduced liabilities for producing extrapyramidal side effects.


Hybrid precoding has been recently proposed as a cost-effective transceiver solution for millimeter wave systems. While the number of radio frequency chains has been effectively reduced in existing works, a large number of high-precision phase shifters are still needed. Practical phase shifters are with coarsely quantized phases, and their number should be reduced to a minimum due to cost and power consideration. In this paper, we propose a novel hardware-efficient implementation for hybrid precoding, called the fixed phase shifter (FPS) implementation. It only requires a small number of phase shifters with quantized and fixed phases. To enhance the spectral efficiency, a switch network is put forward to provide dynamic connections from phase shifters to antennas, which is adaptive to the channel states. An effective alternating minimization algorithm is developed with closed-form solutions in each iteration to determine the hybrid precoder and the states of switches. Moreover, to further reduce the hardware complexity, a group-connected mapping strategy is proposed to reduce the number of switches. Simulation results show that the FPS fully-connected hybrid precoder achieves higher hardware efficiency with much fewer phase shifters than existing proposals. Furthermore, the group-connected mapping achieves a good balance between spectral efficiency and hardware complexity.


In the present study, Ti4wt%Al4wt%Co alloy foam has been made using mechanically alloyed powder and elemental powder through space holder technique to investigate the mechanical and corrosion behaviour. It is noted that after sintering, the average pore sizes are 65 µm, 128 µm and 196 µm for the foam samples made by the use of space holder sizes 75 µm, 152 µm and 220 µm, respectively. It is further noted that the reduction in pore size with respect to used space holder is higher for the foam made of elementary powder. The foam made of finer space holder exhibits greater relative density and less porosity. Because of this fact, it has higher plastic collapse stress or yield stress. The foam made with elementary powder exhibited higher strength than the foam made of milled powder. The foam made with coarser pore size exhibits less corrosion rate as compared to that one with finer pore size. The foam made with elementary powder attains higher corrosion rate as compared to that one made with milled powder.


We report the first experimental observation of extreme multistability in a controlled laboratory investigation. Extreme multistability arises when infinitely many attractors coexist for the same set of system parameters. The behavior was predicted earlier on theoretical grounds, supported by numerical studies of models of two coupled identical or nearly identical systems. We construct and couple two analog circuits based on a modified coupled Rössler system and demonstrate the occurrence of extreme multistability through a controlled switching to different attractor states purely through a change in initial conditions for a fixed set of system parameters. Numerical studies of the coupled model equations are in agreement with our experimental findings.


Objectives Patients with complex long-term needs experience multiple parallel care processes, which may have conflicting or competing goals, within their individual patient trajectory (iPT). The alignment of multiple goals is often implicit or non-existent, and has received little attention in the literature. Research questions: (1) What goals for care relevant for the iPT can be identified from the literature? (2) What goal typology can be proposed based on goal characteristics? (3) How can professionals negotiate a consistent set of goals for the iPT? Design Document content analysis of health service research papers, on the topic of 'goals for care'. Setting With the increasing prevalence of multimorbidity, guidance regarding the identification and alignment of goals for care across organisations and disciplines is urgently needed. Participants 70 papers that describe 'goals for care', 'health' or 'the good healthcare process' relevant to a general iPT, identified in a step-wise structured search of MEDLINE, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Results We developed a goal typology with four categories. Three categories are professionally defined: (1) Functional, (2) Biological/Disease and (3) Adaptive goals. The fourth category is the patient's personally defined goals. Professional and personal goals may conflict, in which case goal prioritisation by creation of a goal hierarchy can be useful. We argue that the patient has the moral and legal right to determine the goals at the top of such a goal hierarchy. Professionals can then translate personal goals into realistic professional goals such as standardised health outcomes linked to evidence-based guidelines. Thereby, when goals are aligned with one another, the iPT will be truly patient centred, while care follows professional guidelines. Conclusions Personal goals direct professional goals and define the success criteria of the iPT. However, making personal goals count requires brave and wide-sweeping attitudinal, organisational and regulatory transformation of care delivery.


With the introduction of multiply connected topologies into physics, a question of causality arises. There are alternative routes between two points in a multiply connected space. Therefore, one may ask if a signal traveling at the speed of light along one route could be outpaced by a signal which has traveled a much shorter path through a handle or "wormhole." This paper examines one such situation and shows that in this example causality is preserved. It proves essential in the analysis to distinguish between those regions of space-time which are catastrophic and those which are not. A catastrophic region is composed of catastrophic points. A catastrophic point in space-time is so located with respect to eventual singularities in the intrinsic geometry that every time-like geodesic through it necessarily runs into a region of infinite curvature at some time in the future—or was born out of a region of infinite curvature at some time in the past—or both. If a classical analysis of nature were possible—which it is not—then it would be natural to postulate that laboratory physics is carried out in noncatastrophic regions of space-time. Two such regions are shown to exist in the example considered in the paper. It is shown that no signal can ever be sent from one to the other. The key point in preventing any violation of causality is simple: The (Schwarzschild) throat of the wormhole pinches off in a finite time and traps the signal in a region of infinite curvature. This investigation also displays some of the unusual geometric features of the Schwarzschild solution of Einstein's equations for a spherically symmetrical center of attraction. Radial spacelike geodesics passing through the throat are calculated and it is shown that there exist regions of space-time unreachable by any radial geodesics that issue from a given point. Also, there exist points in space-time from which light signals can never be received no matter how long one waits.


Antimicrobial resistance poses a major problem to health and new alternatives to antibiotics are required. Bacteriophages are viruses able to selectively kill bacteria and they can be exploited to treat infections. Another alternative to antibiotics that can be used to treat bacterial infections are bacteriocins, which are proteins produced by bacteria, meant to kill other strains competing for the same nourishment source. Future industrial demand for large quantities of bacteriophages and bacteriocins imposes the development of a scalable production platform.In this PhD thesis, research on bioprocessing of bacteriophages K and T3 and one bacteriocin belonging to the subcategory of colicins, E9, has been conducted. The aims were to find the parameters involved in production of phages and colicin E9 using shake flasks and then exploiting them to perform continuous production of both phages and colicin E9 and showing the different outcomes when using complex medium (LB) and a synthetic medium (SM) using glucose as only carbon source.For the colicin E9 bioprocessing, tests for expression were carried out to measure when and for how long to induce for optimal protein production and the best conditions for production were an induction of 3 h with 1 mM of IPTG in LB medium and >10 h of induction with 1 mM of IPTG in SM. These parameters were used for continuous production of colicin E9 that was carried out using a chemostat. Optimal dilution rates were used to ensure maximum productivity and a production of 1 mg mL-1 of colicin E9 was achieved using either LB and synthetic medium. Then, the influence of flowrates and of different growth media on the first step of purification was assessed using affinity chromatography, showing that the synthetic medium allowed higher recovery of the product in the chromatography step.Bioprocessing of the phages K and T3 was carried out in shake flasks and 5L fermenters, researching the best parameters for producing the highest titres. The effect on the final titre of a variety of multiplicities of infection (MOI), the ratio of phages out of bacteria at the moment of infection, was evaluated. For both phages the MOI that ensured the highest phage titre, 1011 PFU mL-1, was 0.01. The parameters measured were then used for continuous production of bacteriophage T3.Continuous phage T3 production was carried out using a novel reactors layout, composed by 3 separated stages. This set up allowed to divide the production of the host cells, carried out in the first reactor, from the infection, carried out in the second reactor, and from the final amplification step, carried out in the third reactor. The synthetic medium with glucose as only carbon source and the dilution rate (D, the volume of media that flows in the reactor per hour) were used to control the growth rate of the host, which strongly influenced the final production of bacteriophages. Different Diiiwere tested, from 0.1 to 0.6 h-1 and the independent control of the dilution rate of the first and the second reactor allowed to produce phage lysates at the same concentrations as in batch process, reaching a constant production of 2x1011 PFU mL-1 when D = 0.5 h-1 was used in the first reactor.Moreover, research on the downstream process of phage bioprocessing was conducted, aiming to reduce the host cell protein burden from phage samples using scalable techniques. The purification of bacteriophages from complex medium was performed using ultrafiltration in batch mode in a stirred cell (SC) and in using tangential flow filtration (TFF). The high shear stress produced SC decreased the viability of the tailed phage K of 2 log10 in 2 h and the positive effects of purification were cancelled by the loss of titre. Phage T3, which has a short tail, showed no side effects due to shear stress. TFF was then tested and both phage K and T3 were purified without significant viability loss. Size exclusion chromatography was used to assess the final protein concentration and showed a decrease of host cell protein load in both phages samples purified by ultrafiltration. Samples of both phages were mixed with a positively charged resin used for anion exchange chromatography and it was shown that phages that have been filtered using ultrafiltration can bind 10 times more than phages of the lysate.The main aim of purification phages produced from Gram-negative bacteria, such as T3, was to reduce the endotoxin levels (or lipopolysaccharide, LPS). Endotoxins are a major contaminant that can cause serious problems if administered and must be removed from drug products. The target was to bring the LPS levels from the initial concentration of 5x106 EU mL-1 (Endotoxin Units per mL) below the limit of 5 EU mL-1. Endotoxin removal was performed using ultrafiltration and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE).The first method tested was the TFF ultrafiltration, carried out in batch mode or in diafiltration mode. Batch ultrafiltration showed a decrease of LPS of 2 log10, either starting from a phage T3 sample from LB or from SM. Diafiltration TFF reached 3 log10 reduction of LPS in both LB or SM samples, but in LB samples it took 20 h and in SM samples only 4 h, showing how a chemically defined medium could improve the purification of phages produced from Gram-negative hosts.The other method tested to further reduce LPS concentration was liquid-liquid extraction, using 1- octanol as organic phase. Many different conditions of LLE were tested, such as length of contact time between aqueous and organic phases, different mixing methods and number of extractions. Liquid- liquid extraction using octanol ensured a reduction of endotoxins of 4 log10 from the initial concentration. This technique was then followed by ion exchange chromatography, which allowed to reach a final concentration of 102 EU mL-1.ivFinally, analysis on how endotoxins concentrations affected the aggregation of phage T3 were performed, showing how phage T3 aggregates in presence of endotoxins whilst it has a low polidspersivity at low endotoxins concentrations.This thesis showed how is it possible to produce bacteriophages and an antimicrobial protein at high concentrations using a continuous production mode and a chemically defined medium. The positive effects of the synthetic medium on the downstream steps were also illustrated, such as a lower burden for ion exchange columns and a faster reduction of endotoxin concentration from the samples.


ANALYSIS OF HAT-SECTIONED REINFORCED COMPOSITE BEAMS INCLUDING THERMAL EFFECTS Publication No. _________ Kashif Ali Nayyer Syed, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2006 Supervising Professor: Wen S. Chan A simple analytical method for analyzing fiber reinforced polymeric composite beams with hat cross-section is presented. The method includes development of closedform expression of the axial, bending and their coupling stiffness matrices for the composite beams. The stiffness matrices are obtained by transforming the actual geometrical cross-section of the beam into an equivalent plate using transformation matrices and Parallel Axis theorem. Ply stresses due to mechanical as well as thermal load can easily be obtained at any given location of the beam section. In this approach, the effect of induced in-plane deformation due to bending for an unsymmetrical crosssection is included while the conventional analysis, using the smeared properties, ignores this coupling effect. Finite element analysis was conducted to obtain the results for comparison. It is concluded that the axial and bending stiffness obtained by the present method gives excellent agreement to the finite element results as compared v with the conventional method. Significant error is observed for axial stiffness comparison between conventional and finite element results. Experimental bending stiffness values of I-beams are also used for comparison and good conformity is observed using present method. A simple closed form solution is derived based on the extensional application of developed method to obtain ply stresses due to thermal loading. Results were validated and excellent agreement is observed with the finite element model. Location of centroid and shear center plays an important role in engineering analysis as extension/bending and bending/twisting are decoupled at these locations, respectively. For composite material, these locations are dependent not only on cross sectional geometry but also on the material properties. Based on the stiffness matrices obtained, a simple methodology is developed to determine these locations. Results are validated by comparing with isotropic materials and also by observing the behavior of composite material for symmetric and unsymmetric cases. It is concluded that the present method provides generic solution for the design and analysis of laminated composite beams with significant accuracy and ease. The developed tool is handy in providing the parametric study for composite structural design.


Objective Removal of the anterior clinoid process (ACP) is an essential process in the surgery of giant or complex aneurysms located near the proximal internal carotid artery or the distal basilar artery. An extradural clinoidectomy must be performed within the limits of the meningeal layers surrounding the ACP to prevent morbid complications. To identify the safest method of extradural exposure of the ACP, anatomical studies were done on cadaver heads. Methods Anatomical dissections for extradural exposure of the ACP were performed on both sides of seven cadavers. Before dividing the frontotemporal dural fold (FTDF), we measured its length from the superomedial apex attached to the periorbita to the posterolateral apex which connects to the anterosuperior end of the cavernous sinus. Results The average length of the FTDF on cadaver dissections was 7 mm on the right side and 7.14 mm on the left side. Cranial nerves were usually exposed when cutting FTDF more than 7 mm of the FTDF. Conclusion The most delicate area in an extradural anterior clinoidectomy is the junction of the FTDF and the anterior triangular apex of the cavernous sinus. The FTDF must be cut from the anterior side of the triangle at the periorbital side rather than from the dural side. The length of the FTDF incision must not exceed 7 mm to avoid cranial nerve injury.


In visual search, the gallery set could be incrementally growing and added to the database in practice. However, existing methods rely on the model trained on the entire dataset, ignoring the continual updating of the model. Besides, as the model updates, the new model must re-extract features for the entire gallery set to maintain compatible feature space, imposing a high computational cost for a large gallery set. To address the issues of long-term visual search, we introduce a continual learning (CL) approach that can handle the incrementally growing gallery set with backward embedding consistency. We enforce the losses of inter-session data coherence, neighbor-session model coherence, and intra-session discrimination to conduct a continual learner. In addition to the disjoint setup, our CL solution also tackles the situation of increasingly adding new classes for the blurry boundary without assuming all categories known in the beginning and during model update. To our knowledge, this is the first CL method both tackling the issue of backward-consistent feature embedding and allowing novel classes to occur in the new sessions. Extensive experiments on various benchmarks show the efficacy of our approach under a wide range of setups 11Code: https://github.com/ivclab/CVS.


This book explores the mind-body issue from both the perspectives of philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. Starting from the problem of mental causation, it provides an overview of the contemporary metaphysical discussion and argues in favour of the token-identity thesis, as the only position that can account for the causal efficacy of the mental. Showing furthermore that this ontological reductionism is not dissociable from epistemological reductionism, the author applies a new strategy of inter-theoretic reduction, which is compatible with the multiple reliability of mental properties. Using functionally defined sub-types, this account establishes a conservative reduction of psychology to neuroscience, which vindicates both the scientific legitimacy and the theoretical indispensability of psychology. This account is illustrated by several empirical examples borrowed from contemporary neuroscience.


Summary
Many purified tymovirus particles are trapped on buffer-treated grids due to non-specific adsorption. Pre-treatment of grids with serum or addition of crude plant sap to virus preparations greatly inhibited non-specific adsorption. Specific serological binding on grids coated with homologous antiserum produced particle counts comparable to those achieved by non-specific adsorption on buffer-treated grids in the absence of plant sap. Specific serological binding was not influenced by crude sap of Nicotiana clevelandii. For both adsorption and serological binding there was a linear relationship between the log virus concentration and log particle counts at virus concentrations below approx. 10 µg/ml; at higher concentrations the grids were saturated. In the presence of excess virus, antisera at dilutions of less than 10-3 yielded lower particle counts than more dilute antisera. Heterologous reactions were detected only with viruses for which very close serological relationships had been found in the agar gel double-diffusion test. Heterologously bound virus was apparently not replaced by subsequently applied homologous virus. However, adsorbed bottom component virus particles could be replaced by top component particles of the same virus and vice versa.


Many countries are suffering from water shortage, especially Egypt, which is considered one of the limited regions in fresh-water resources. Desalination has been proven a feasible and promising technology for supplying potable water. However, the main challenge inhibiting the wider use of desalination technologies is the high economic cost especially due to the energy consumption. The main goal of this research is to provide an approach on the possibility of using vertical-axis turbines to harness the periodical tidal current and the hydrokinetic flow from ships and vessels, which run continuously in the Suez Canal waterway, for a desalination process. The turbine rotor type and the design parameters have been selected carefully looking for self-starting and best performance under low flow velocities with independency of the flow direction. Experimentally, the model has been fabricated using additive manufacturing process, and tested in a water flume under different upstream flow velocities. Power curves have been obtained for each operating condition. Additionally, the non-dimensional tip speed ratio and power co-efficient curve have been characterized. Numerically, an intensive three-dimensional simulation has been carried out in order to obtain a better understanding of the complex hydrodynamic flow phenomena around the turbine rotor.


In this talk I will first review a very useful machine learning tool for pharmaceutical applications: the Graph neural Network (GNN). A GNN analyses a signal on graph structured data, such as molecules or knowledge graphs. We then define the concept of equivariance, an organizing principle that embues the neural network with the right transformation properties under symmetry transformations. For instance, a molecule has the same properties whether we rotate it in space or not. We will finally apply the new 3D equivariant graph neural network to molecular data and show that it can successfully predict properties that are relevant for drug screening. If time permits we will briefly describe further relevant generalizations of this technnology.


Blades are key part of hydro turbines, which often distorts during heat treatment process for their special structures. In this paper, thermal fluid finite element simulation of the forced air cooling process of a blade casting was carried out under a variety of distances between fans and blades, air speeds, groups of fans and circumstance temperatures. The temperature fields of blade castings were obtained. A novel parameter, temperature difference between surfaces of castings along thickness direction, was proposed to analyze the distortion of blade castings. The distortion behavior of blade castings with martensitic stainless steel were discussed, which is in good agreement with distortion regularity of the experimental ones. The temperature differences between blade casting surfaces are always greater than zero, resulting in distortion which could be divided into three stages. Finally, we focused on discussing the control methods of distortion behavior of blade castings which could be operated in actual production.


This paper presents a computational approach for simulating the motion of a single fiber suspended within a viscous fluid. We develop a Finite Element Method (FEM) for modeling the dynamics of a single rigid fiber suspended in a moving fluid. Our approach seeks solutions using the Newton-Raphson method for the fiber's linear and angular velocities such that the net hydrodynamic forces and torques acting on the fiber are zero. Fiber motion is then computed with a Runge-Kutta method to update the fiber position and orientation as a function of time. Low-Reynolds-number viscous flows are considered since these best represent the flow conditions for a polymer melt within a mold cavity. This approach is first used to verify Jeffery's orbit (1922) and addresses such issues as the role of a fiber's geometry on the dynamics of a single fiber, which were not addressed in Jeffery's original work. The method is quite general and allows for fiber shapes that include, but are not limited to, ellipsoidal fibers (such as that studied in Jeffery's original work), cylindrical fibers and bead-chain fibers. The relationships between equivalent aspect ratio and geometric aspect ratio of cylindrical and other axisymmetric fibers are derived in this paper.


Background Unhealthy diets are a risk factor for many chronic diseases, accounting for around 40% excess cardiovascular and cancer mortality annually across the United Kingdom. Multifactorial strategies may help address this, and governments employ a variety of approaches to influence individual diets, the prevalence of obesity and population health. This systematic scoping review considers the effectiveness of regulatory interventions to change diet or diet-related behaviour. Methods The review includes regulation, rules and legislation (collectively, "regulation") seeking to directly alter diet, dietary behaviour or nutrition by influencing (a) dietary behaviour (e.g. through regulating labelling, calorie display, marketing, food in schools, or built environments; or by using taxes or subsidies) or (b) the nutritional content of food (e.g. by specifying salt or trans fat levels). The review follows Cochrane and EPPI-Centre guidance and comprises a scoping review of regulatory interventions, and in-depth reviews on (1) school-based fruit and vegetable schemes and (2) control of trans fats. Medline, Embase, ISI WoK, EconLit, grey literature and bibliographic searches to the end of December 2012 identified 134 studies eligible for full text review. Studies were included if they had a recognisable research design. Results Studies of information labels (packaging or menus) and compliance with school food standards occurred most frequently. Six studies of school-based fruit and vegetable schemes provided moderate evidence of short-term increases in intake but weak evidence for any longer term behaviour changes. Thirteen studies examined trans fat controls through bans or labelling. These measures achieved good compliance if regulation was monitored, with evidence of food reformulation following both bans and labelling. Removing trans fats had minor effects on food availability, price or quality, although some 'trans free' foods commanded a price premium. The costs of removing trans fats were not reported. Conclusion Regulations with monitoring achieved compliance, but whether this affects food choices, dietary behaviour, nutrition, obesity prevalence or other health outcomes is unclear since those impacts have been under-evaluated. Regulation to influence dietary behaviour as well as the nutritional content of food can be used as a structural intervention to help create healthier living environments. Mandated labelling may risk exacerbating inequalities unless individual behaviour is also considered, and could be used to mislead consumers by providing a 'healthy halo' for unhealthy food. Understanding the effectiveness and costs of regulatory interventions will highlight where government-led action may be effective in promoting healthy diets in the population.


Heijmans uses Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to improve internal processes. However, the LSSbprojects and the implementation of improved processes have a longer throughput time than desired. The cause for the long throughput time of the projects is partly due to the lack of intrinsic motivation to carry out LSSbprojects. In addition to that, also the necessity to examine the required LSSbtools for every generic LSSbproject over and over again, as well as the related patterns of ignorance within the organization are responsible for the phenomenon of a too long throughput time of those projects. Regarding to the implementation phase, the longer throughput time is caused by the natural desire of employees to maintain the status quo.

Project phase throughput time
Regarding the reduction of the throughput time of the project phase, three templates for generic LSSbprojects have been developed. These templates include standardization and support for activities of the Green Belts during the LSSbprojects. When Green Belts uses the developed templates during the project phase, intrinsic motivation to carry out a LSSbproject will increase, which results in a reduction of the throughput time of the project phase. The validation of the templates indicates that LSSbprojects can be carried out within four months, in case that the templates are used.

In addition to the development of the templates, this research also provides a link between organizational culture and LSSbproject. The Competing Value Framework (CVF) is used to define and measure the organizational culture of Heijmans Wegen and Heijmans Civiel. The four organizational cultures of the CVF are groupb, adhocracyb hierarchyb and market culture. This organizational culture measurement indicts the market culture as a prevailing culture in most regions, business units and function groups within Heijmans. Furthermore, the market culture turns out to have the most significant relations with Six Sigma improvement practices. Nevertheless, the LSSbprojects have a longer throughput time than desired. This can be explained the fact that the market culture is not measured as a dominant culture because the market culture is not significant higher as compared to the other three cultures.

This research reveals that it is important to align the personal culture of the Green Belt with the organisational culture of the region, business unit or function group. With a good match between those two cultures, the throughput time of the LSSbprojects will be reduced. Furthermore, based on characteristics of the organizational cultures, a comparison between LSSbaspects and the four organizational cultures is made. This comparison shows that the type of generic LSSbproject, involvement of customers, suppliers and employees during the project, match a particular organizational culture to a greater of lesser extent.

Implementation phase throughput time
The implementation of the improved process within the organization is a change in the organization. Due to the natural urge of employees to maintain the status quo, "organizational culture driven resistance" against the change arises. By aligning the implementation phase and the organizational culture, the resistance to this change will be reduced. Based on the characteristics of the four organizational cultures of the CVF, guidances are defined to implement the improved processes. Those guidances are recommendations and tips which ensure alignment of the implementation phase with the organizational culture.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that it is possible to carry out a LSSbproject within four months in case that the developed templates will be used. In addition, the alignment of the LSSbproject phase with the organizational culture results in a reduction of the throughput time of the project phase. Furthermore, alignment of the implementation phase to the organizational culture leads to a reduction of the throughput time of the implementation phase. By using the defined guidances during the implementation, alignment of the implementation phase to the organizational culture is obtained.


Abstract. The quality of urban life has become one of the most pertinent issues in contemporary times in India. There have been several reports published by government and nongovernmental agencies listing out various dimensions of quality of urban life but in a half-hearted manner as some reports have focused just upon the quality of urban air or some governmental reports talk about Human Development Index. There has hardly been any holistic effort to scale the quality of urban life in terms of economic, social, cultural, environmental and psychological well-being. Unless all these parameters are combined, one cannot furnish the livability index of micro urban spaces within major metropolitan regions. The calculation of livability index thus needs to take into account environmental, socio-economic and mental dimensions. The environment related data has been achieved by extracting NDVI through LANDSAT satellite imagery for the month of May, 2018. NDVI has been used for calculating green spaces index. The data related to socio-economic parameters have been collected through primary and secondary sources of data. The data related to psychological health is gathered through questionnaire survey and personal interviews. Ranking based index calculation has been applied to arrive at a common livability index of select sub spaces in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The outcomes are very interesting and helpful in comparative analysis of select sub-spaces vis-à-vis quality of life. It has also helped in the identification of stressed sub-regional or micro spaces. Such livability index will be highly useful in regional and urban planning. The research aims at calculating livability index for select sub-regional spaces in Mumbai Metropolitan Region.


This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).


We examine the influence of the migration of chemical constituents, driven by gradients in normal stress, upon the evolution of fold geometry in anisotropic, linearlyviscous, multi-layered materials. The layering consists of an alternating sequence of high viscosity, chemically mobile rock and lower viscosity, chemically immobile rock. In a natural analogue, the high viscosity, chemically mobile layers could be quartz rich whilst the low viscosity, chemically immobile layers could be mica rich The deformation is assumed to be incompressible, with temporarily and spatially evolving volume fractions of the mobile and immobile constituents. We present a large deformation formulation for a layered, viscous material.. The particle-in-cell finite element method combines many of the advantages of traditional finite elements with the geometrical flexibility of pure particle methods. The method is particularly suitable for problems involving very large deformation without the need for re-meshing.


The Codex Alimentarius (Codex) international food standards help to ensure food safety and promote fair practices in the international food trade. Implementing these standards using a risk management framework (RMF) approach to decision-making is an increasingly common aspect of the food control programmes of national governments. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) provides guidance at both the system and food commodity levels. In the case of zoonoses, similarities in the risk analysis methodologies used to underpin standard setting by the CAC and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) are highly enabling of integrated food control systems. The CAC and the OIE are increasingly working together to develop their respective standards for foodborne zoonoses and other hazards so that they are non-duplicative, cohesive and utilise the whole food chain. There is a clear need for effective integration of food safety and animal health monitoring and surveillance information to better control foodborne zoonoses. This is increasingly supported by Codex and OIE standards working together in a variety of ways and realisation of benefits is highly dependent on coordination and sharing of information between Competent Authorities and other food safety stakeholders at the national level.


North East states of India are one of the richest repositories of medicinal and aromatic plants in the World. This region is also well-known for diverse culture of human races and home of large number of ethinic people of India. The age long intrinsic relationship between this ethinic people with the environmental resources mainly plants endued the modern civilization with many herbal medicines, though a large number of medicinal plants and their folk uses have remained endemic to certain tribes of the region. Scientific approach for their exploration, utilization, conservation and value addition may be the key points for entrepreneurship development by exploiting the indigenous technology knowledge. The therapeutic activity of such plants has made an outstanding contribution in the origin and evolution of many traditional herbal therapies, but such folk traditional knowledge have started to disappear with the passage of time due to scarcity of written documents and relatively low income in these traditions. Though the ethanobotanical survey is a very intricate or convoluted process, but a more number of ethanobatanical surveys, and assembly of such information in systemic way can make difference in research and development work on such medicinal plants. This type of approach also helpful for conservation programme of rare plant species.


Building damages as well as induced effects of earthquake are the consequences of surface ground motion at the site. While due importance is given to the soil beneath the ground, the selection of input motion in site response studies is inadequate. Present work highlights the importance of bedrock motion upon the response of a soil column. A typical borehole up to 30m depth is analyzed for wide range of globally recorded bedrock motions in absence of regional ground motion records. Based on the analyses, it is observed that the bedrock motions with low amplitude produce high amplification factors while high amplitude bedrock motions produce low amplification factor. In seismic microzonation practices of urban centers, the amplitude of bedrock motion and the amplification factor are considered independently for assigning ranks while estimating hazard index. However, from this work, it is found that the amplitude bedrock motion and amplification factor are strongly correlated. Thus, a more combined approach is required while assigning ranks in estimating the hazard index value. In similar way, the correlations between other thematic layers of seismic microzonation practice can be studied in future. Such outcomes will affect the current seismic microzonation practices as well.


This article deals with the transferability of managed care strategies to the German health care system. First of all, a definition of managed care and its characteristic strategies is presented. Secondly, the legal basis as defined by the German social code for the implementation of managed care strategies is examined. Focusing on the ambulatory care sector, possible positive and negative effects of these strategies are assessed. It shows that managed care strategies are not unknown to the German health care system. Especially the 1997 health care reform law increased the opportunities for implementation of managed care strategies on a voluntary basis. However, for a structural reform of the statutory health insurance system based on the principles of managed care, both the legal basis and the sociopolitical acceptance are still lacking.


Mereology is the study of parts and the relationships that hold between them. We introduce a behavioral approach to mereology, in which systems and their parts are known only by the types of behavior they can exhibit. Our discussion is formally topos-theoretic, and agnostic to the topos, providing maximal generality; however, by using only its internal logic we can hide the details and readers may assume a completely elementary set-theoretic discussion. We consider the relationship between various parts of a whole in terms of how behavioral constraints are passed between them, and give an inter-modal logic that generalizes the usual alethic modalities in the setting of symmetric accessibility.


Do you have trouble relating to your students? Do your "tried and true" teaching methods not have the same impact on today's students? Do you want to become a more effective teacher? Are you just curious about what's "new" in terms of teaching tools and technologies? If so, attend this interactive workshop on teaching the digital millennial learner and relating to the "Net Generation" where we will discuss the characteristics of the millennial learner, how to respond to their needs, and adapting your classes to their learning styles. This interactive presentation will also explore tips, tools and technologies for responding and relating to the current generation of students. Audience members will participate in the presentation using the technology discussed.


Blind system identification (BSI) is a fundamental signal processing technology aimed at retrieving a system's unknown information from its output only. This technology has a wide range of possible applications such as mobile communications, speech reverberation cancellation, and blind image restoration. This paper reviews a number of recently developed concepts and techniques for BSI, which include the concept of blind system identifiability in a deterministic framework, the blind techniques of maximum likelihood and subspace for estimating the system's impulse response, and other techniques for direct estimation of the system input.